Deuteronomy 12 - Introduction

C. Chs. 12 26. The Statutes and Judgements

The Deuteronomic Code, of which all the rest of the book is the religious and historical introduction and enforcement, consists of some seventy separate laws, connected by and mingled with exhortations and religious formulas in a style similar to that of the introductory discourses. The laws fall into four divisions of unequal size, consisting of smaller groups distinguished by their separate subjects: the whole upon a manifest plan of arrangement which however is not perfectly observed but is broken at several points by the appearance of single laws or small groups of laws out of their proper relation. This will be seen from the following conspectus:

The Title to the whole Code Deuteronomy 12:1

I. Laws of Religious Institutions and Worship Deuteronomy 12:2, 21 17:7

Of the One Altar (in several forms) Deuteronomy 12:2-28

Against Heathen Rites and the Worship of Other Gods Deuteronomy 12:29

[with perhapsDeuteronomy 16:21 toDeuteronomy 17:7]

Against Rites for the Dead Deuteronomy 14:1-2

Of Clean and Unclean Beasts, etc. Deuteronomy 14:3-21

Of Tithes Deuteronomy 14:22-29

Of the Remittance or Release Deuteronomy 15:1-18

(1) for Israelite and foreign creditors (Deuteronomy 15:1-11),

(2) for slaves (Deuteronomy 15:12-18)

Of Firstlings Deuteronomy 15:19-23

Of the Three Feasts: Passover, Weeks, Tabernacles Deuteronomy 16:1-17

Against "Asherim and Maṣṣebôth Deuteronomy 16:21-22

Against Blemished Sacrifices Deuteronomy 17:1

Against Worshippers of Other Gods Deuteronomy 17:2-7

For the last three see above Deuteronomy 12:29 to Deuteronomy 13:18.

II. Laws of Offices of Authority Deuteronomy 16:18-20; Deuteronomy 17:8-18.

Of Judges and Justice Deuteronomy 16:18-20

Of Judges of Final Appeal Deuteronomy 17:8-13

Of the King Deuteronomy 17:14-20

Of Priests, Levites Deuteronomy 18:1-8

Of Prophets (in contrast to Diviners, Augurs, etc.) Deuteronomy 18:9-22

III. Laws mainly on Crime, War, Property, the Family Deuteronomy 18:19-22.

Of Cities of Refuge for the Manslayer Deuteronomy 19:1-13

Against Removing Landmarks Deuteronomy 19:14

Of Witnesses Deuteronomy 19:15-21

Of the Conduct of War, and who are Exempt Deuteronomy 20:1-20

Of Communal Responsibility for a Murder Deuteronomy 21:1-9

Of Marriage with a Female Captive Deuteronomy 21:10-14

Of the Right of the Firstborn Deuteronomy 21:15-17

Of Disobedient Sons Deuteronomy 21:18-21

Of Hanged Malefactors Deuteronomy 21:22-23

Of Humane Duties in various directions: Deuteronomy 22:1-4; Deuteronomy 22:6-8

A neighbour's lost property (Deuteronomy 22:1-3) and derelict (Deuteronomy 22:4); sparing the mother-bird (Deuteronomy 22:6-7); protecting roofs with parapets (Deuteronomy 22:8)

Against Various Mixtures: Deuteronomy 22:5; Deuteronomy 22:9-11

Wearing clothes of the other sex (Deuteronomy 22:5); mixture of seeds (Deuteronomy 22:9), animals (Deuteronomy 22:10), cloths (Deuteronomy 22:11)

Of Tassels on the Garments Deuteronomy 22:12

Of Procedure in Cases of Unchastity: Deu 22:13-30 1 [130]

[130] From this to the end of ch. 23 the verses are numbered one more in the Heb. text, in which Deuteronomy 23:1 is the Eng. Deuteronomy 22:30.

Charges against a bride (Deuteronomy 22:13-21); adulterers discovered in the act (Deuteronomy 22:22); intercourse with a betrothed virgin, with (Deuteronomy 22:23 f.) or without (Deuteronomy 22:25 ff.) her consent; with a virgin not betrothed (Deuteronomy 22:28 f.); with a father's wife (Deuteronomy 22:30)

Of Right to Enter the Congregation: Deuteronomy 23:1-8

Denied to the mutilated (1), the illegitimate (2), Ammonites and Moabites (Deuteronomy 23:3-6); but granted to third generation of Edomites and Egyptians (Deuteronomy 23:7 f.)

Of Ritual Cleanness in the Camp Deuteronomy 23:9-14

Of Runaway Slaves Deuteronomy 23:15-16

Against Hierodules Deuteronomy 23:17-18

Against Exaction of Interest from Israelites Deuteronomy 23:19-20

Of Vows Deuteronomy 23:21-23

Of Use at Need of Others" Fruits and Corn Deuteronomy 23:24-25

Of Re-marriage after Divorce Deuteronomy 24:1-4

Of Equity and Humanity in various directions: Deuteronomy 24:5 to Deuteronomy 25:4

Exemption of newly-married from war-service (Deuteronomy 24:5); against taking in pledge the necessaries of life (Deuteronomy 24:6; Deuteronomy 24:10-13; Deuteronomy 24:17 f.), stealing Israelites for slaves (Deuteronomy 24:7), neglect of leprosy (Deuteronomy 24:8 f.), withholding wages (Deuteronomy 24:14 f.), putting the fathers to death for the children or vice versâ(Deuteronomy 24:16), and inequity to strangers, fatherless, and widows (Deuteronomy 24:17 f.); on leaving for these parts of the harvest (Deuteronomy 24:19-22); against excessive punishment (Deuteronomy 25:1-3), and muzzling the labouring ox (Deuteronomy 25:4)

Of Levirate Marriage Deuteronomy 25:5-10

Of Reckless Assault Deuteronomy 25:11-12

Against Divers Weights and Measures Deuteronomy 25:13-16

On -Ămale ḳ Deuteronomy 25:17-19

IV. Laws of Ritual Procedure with Proper Players Deuteronomy 26:1-15

In Offering First Fruits Deuteronomy 26:1-11

In Distributing Tithes Deuteronomy 26:12-15

Concluding Exhortation Deuteronomy 26:16-19

Within this Code the laws are never called Torôth(applied in the Code only to the oral directions of the priests, Deuteronomy 17:11; Deuteronomy 24:8) but always Huḳḳim and Mishpatim, Statutes and Judgements. If we may distinguish these terms, as on the one hand decrees of religion, worship, and the theocratic constitution, and on the other civil and criminal laws and sentences with their relevant procedures (cp. debarîm andmishpatim, Exodus 20:22 to Exodus 23:33, Driver, p. 202), then to such a distinction the above arrangement roughly conforms. For of its four main divisions I, II and IV are of the former class, but III of the latter.

As in the Decalogue and the law-book of E, Exodus 20:22-23, the laws of religion and worship come first because of their sacred character, but also for the further reason, peculiar to D, that the law of the One Altar with which they open is the practical corollary to D's fundamental doctrine of the Unity of Israel's God (see on Deuteronomy 12:2-28). Accordingly this law is immediately followed by laws against heathen rites and seductions to the worship of other gods, Deuteronomy 12:29 to Deuteronomy 13:18, among which the similar laws, Deuteronomy 16:21 to Deuteronomy 17:7, seem originally to have stood. The law of clean and unclean foods, Deuteronomy 14:3-21, based on religious grounds, falls naturally into this group (though it may be a later addition); and the rest of the division, Deuteronomy 14:22 to Deuteronomy 16:17, also deals with religious practices and institutions. The Secondplace is naturally assigned to offices of various authority in the theocracy, Deuteronomy 16:18-20; Deuteronomy 17:8-18. The Thirddivision, Deuteronomy 17:19-20, enforces the duties of the individuals of the commonwealth in their family, civic, and military relations; and deals with crimes against these social interests and the relevant procedures. In the Fourth, Deut 17:26, more detailed ritual is enjoined with regard to two of the offerings commanded under the first group.

The chief interruptions in the plan of the Code, which is so manifest throughout, are the separation of the religious laws, Deuteronomy 16:21 to Deuteronomy 17:7; Deuteronomy 23:1-8; Deuteronomy 23:17 f. and 26, from Division I to which by their subjects they properly belong. But further in Division III the laws on marriage and married life are separated from each other, two in Deuteronomy 21:10-17, one in Deuteronomy 24:1-4, and one in Deuteronomy 25:5-10; as are those on murder, Deuteronomy 19:1-13; Deuteronomy 21:1-9, and on war and military service, Deuteronomy 20:1-20; Deuteronomy 23:9-14; Deuteronomy 24:5, and the subordinate groups on equity and humanity, Deuteronomy 22:1-4; Deuteronomy 22:6-8; Deuteronomy 24:5 to Deuteronomy 25:4. Even within the smaller groups there are curious interruptions and isolations; that on humanity, Deuteronomy 22:1-4; Deuteronomy 22:6-8, is broken by Deuteronomy 12:5, against wearing the clothes of the other sex, which properly belongs to the sub-group, Deuteronomy 22:9-11, against various mixtures. Altogether the Code transgresses its own prohibition of the confusion of things naturally diverse. -Moses sometimes mixes together precepts respecting different things" (Calvin on Exodus 23:19).

Sometimes this disorder is necessitated by the overlapping or crossing of the subjects of various laws; sometimes, as in the separation of Deuteronomy 16:21 to Deuteronomy 17:7 from Deuteronomy 12:29 to Deuteronomy 13:18, it may be due to the carelessness of a copyist. Other possible causes are the gradual growth of the Code by the addition of laws instituted or adopted later than its original form, and the compilation of the whole Code from separate smaller Codes (as in the case of the Code of E; see Driver's Exod.202 ff). Of the former cause ch. 26 may be an illustration. But while gradual additions may have been made from time to time to the Code, the chief impression which the above list makes on the mind is that the whole Code, as it stands, is a compilation from various sources. And this impression is corroborated by the facts that several of the laws appear in more than one form especially the first and fundamental law of the One Altar, but cp. also the Laws on the Passover and the Priests and that some of these doublets are distinguished by being couched in different forms of address, Sg. and Pl. Thus the same phenomena as those which betray a plurality of sources in the introductory discourses, 1 11, persist in the Code, 12 26, and prove the composite character of even this the central portion of the Book of Deuteronomy. The proofs will be given in the detailed notes.

The bulk of the laws are based either on those of E and (in fewer cases) of J, or upon the consuetudinary laws of which the Codes of E and J are the other precipitates. But their chief distinction from the Codes of E and J is that the latter have no counterpart to the law of the One Altar in D. On the contrary they imply that Israel may sacrifice to their God at many altars, wheresoever He records His Name (cp. Chapman, Introd. to Pent.131 ff., and Driver, Exod.207 f.). The law of the One Altar necessitated many other differences between the Code of D and the earlier legislation; for example in permitting at a distance from the One Altar the slaughter and eating of domestic beasts without ritual; in the laws on Tithes and Firstlings; and most of all in the institution of the Cities of Refuge, for which no equivalent was required in the earlier legislation, since according to this the man who slew his brother accidentally might find asylum at any of the many altars which it sanctions. On the details of the relation of D's laws to those of H and P see the notes below; here it need only be said that the laws of H and P give proof of belonging to a later stage than D's in the social and ecclesiastical development of Israel; and that in particular many of their differences from D's are due to the increased influence of the priesthood, its separation from the general body of the Levites, and its encroachment upon their rights and the rights of the lay worshippers.

The Title to the Code

Like some other titles this is mixed of the Sg. and Pl. forms of address. Sam. confirms the Heb. text. The LXX harmonising gives Pl. throughout.